CSCI 3302 “Introduction to Robotics”

The overarching learning goal of this class is to create an appreciation for the tight interplay between mechanism, sensor, and control in the design of intelligent systems. This includes (1) formally describing the forward and inverse kinematics of a mechanism, (2) understanding the sources of uncertainty in sensing and actuation as well as to describe them mathematically, (3) how to discretize the robot’s state and reason about it algorithmically, and (4) experiencing 1-3 on a real robotic platform.

After using a variety of platforms, this iteration of the class will use the “Sparki“, a simple differential wheel platform from ArcBotics, allowing students to implement simple odometry, Markov localization and simple planning for object retrieval tasks.

Meetings

This class consists of a lecture and a laboratory component. Meetings are Tuesday 3:30-4:45pm in FLM157 (lecture) and Friday 12-2pm in TBD (lab).

Grading

The grade is based on written homework assignments (30%), laboratory assignments (20%), a final project (30%), and class participation (20%).

Office Hours

Thursday, 9-11am in ECES 118C.

Textbook

We will be using my free, open-source textbook “Introduction to Autonomous Robotics”, which can be downloaded on Github or purchased from Amazon.